Atlanta Arrival (Wednesday)
I arrived early afternoon in Atlanta. Grabbed an Uber up to my friend’s home, then immediately crashed on the couch for a few hours while he was at work. Even with that long afternoon nap, I had no issues at all getting to sleep on time. I guess I wasn’t quite as adjusted to Hong Kong time as I thought. It really didn’t take anything to get re-acclimated to my home time zone.
Once he was back from work, we hung out and played video games for a while. Didn’t play more Carcassonne, but we did jump into Overcooked! Even though I own the game on Steam I had never played it. It’s pretty fun. That game turned into something we played a lot of over my short stay.
Solitude (Thursday)
My friend did his usual work thing on Thursday so I got some alone time. It was nice to just chill and play Sky Factory 4. Some serious issues playing that on this laptop though. Game crashed many, many times, had serious lag, and long loading times. Luckily those issues didn’t stop me, I thoroughly enjoyed my solitude. I was super refreshed by the time he was off work.
And of course, we continued our journey through Overcooked. I helped entertain his boy while he got some things done that he needed. Overall it was a nice evening without too much hassle.
Flexible (Friday)
Friday my friend took a mental health day. We basically spent all morning playing Overcooked. Started getting pretty good at it too. There were a couple levels we had some issues with, but overall we had picked up the rhythm of the game. Mid-afternoon we headed out to get some pho. As always, the food was delicious!
While we were in the area we stopped by Fry’s Electronics. I picked up a laptop bag to help make my journey home easier. I also got another stick of RAM for the laptop. Doubling the memory has seriously improved all the performance. Who woulda guessed 8GB of ram just isn’t enough these days?
Once we were done, we headed out to get his boy, and man he was in a mood. In the end things turned out alright, but it started out pretty irritating. We tried 3 player Overcooked with the little one but things didn’t go so good. It was kinda hard to keep him on task, but that’s okay because we all had fun.
The Final Leg (Saturday)
Saturday morning started bright and early at 4a. I got up, downed a cup of coffee, made sure everything was ready to go, then grabbed an Uber back to the airport. Security wasn’t too bad, the line was long but moved pretty quickly. Though it was nowhere near as good as security to and from Hong Kong. I can’t quite remember which leg(s) of the journey it was but there were a couple of points were security was just amazingly short and quick. Of course, customs and border control from Toronto to Atlanta sucked balls.
My wait in the Atlanta airport wasn’t too bad. I ate breakfast, watched some TV, and chilled. The plane was completely full, I did swap seats with someone so they could be next to their other half. Didn’t cause me any issues since I still got to have an isle seat. Flying to San Juan was smooth as ever, just watched more television shows that I had prepared.
After that it was a jaunt around San Juan airport, back through security which wasn’t too bad, then some waiting for my van with wings. This time the van only had three passengers. The trip was smooth, I actually fell asleep for a little bit there. After deplaning I zipped through customs and immigration (easy to do when there’s only three people on the plane).
Back Home
My truck was waiting for me at the airport. Hopped on in the cab and drove my happy ass back home. Took a little time to talk to the roommate, told her about the trip, found out about what I missed while I was gone, the usual. Had a bit of early dinner, then just retired to my room. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep before 8pm.
Learning Experience
So, I’ve learned a few things from this trip, some I knew and had forgotten or written off, others I’ve never needed to think about until now. Let me share my wisdom in the hopes it helps you out.
I’ve decided that under no circumstances will I ever get a non-isle seat again. It is imperative that no matter what you do, avoid that damned window seat, especially for such long flights. That is the number one most important thing I have to keep in mind when I book any flight.
The second most important thing, upgrade your seat. Especially for long flights, as long as the difference in price isn’t too high, just a single step up in class will make the flight so much better and easier. The longer the flight, the more important this becomes.
Another thing I’ve got to keep in mind is those neck pillows. I’ve never used one, don’t own one. But after this series of flights, I can see how they could be very nice to have. So I highly recommend them for anyone who’s going to sleep on their flight. I figure I’ll pick one up before my next long trek.
Featured Image
This week’s featured image is just a simple shot from the house. I probably should have taken something around Atlanta but I didn’t think of it. Instead just a quick photo of the ocean out the kitchen door.
